


Tomb Raiding

by Tah the Trickster (TahTheTrickster)



Series: My Hero. [2]
Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2459378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TahTheTrickster/pseuds/Tah%20the%20Trickster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia has always told her Thane that it isn't wise to rob the graves in the Nord tombs that they frequently come across. The Dragonborn, of course, rarely listens to that. It isn't like the dead need half their things anymore anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tomb Raiding

Dar'Zahyla was always morbidly curious about the... _things_ we found in tombs.

Draugr, falmer, pots and urns of all sorts—with every tomb she dragged me into, she was sure to methodically check everything that might hide "anything moderately useful," as she phrased it.

I was a little taken aback the first time I saw her examining a draugr she'd beaten to death with her mace. She gave its weaponry a cursory glance, sizing it up in comparison to her own, before putting it aside.

"What _are_ you doing?" I said, raising a brow.

"Just looking," she said, distracted. The draugr's pockets turned out a handful of septims and a lockpick. She deposited the coins into her purse and slipped the pick up her sleeve before noticing my appalled look. Dar'Zahyla was immediately defensive: " _What?_ "

"Is that necessary?"

Dar'Zahyla scoffed. "It is hardly as though he will need either." She rapped her knuckles on its exposed skull, and the hollow taps echoed through the tomb. She got to her feet and wiped her hands on her leather breeches. "I will put them to much better use." Dar'Zahyla gestured vaguely for me to follow as she started back into the tomb. I sighed and followed her.

Only moments later she was checking a set of burial urns she’d found, dusting the gold coins off before dropping them into the pouch at her hip.

I frowned again. “Don’t you suppose that it’s a _little_ disrespectful to take things from the dead?” I asked.

“I am only taking things they will not be using,” she pointed out.

“Nords are buried with coins in case they need to use them in Sovengarde.”

She gave me an incredulous look. She picked up the closest draugr with one hand, and it nearly disintegrated just from being moved. “Lydia, I assure you that if they have not made it to this place by now, they are not _ever_ making it.” Dar’Zahyla dropped it, and the force of gravity alone made its head snap clean off. She gave me a pointed look. “Would gold not suit the living more than the long-dead?”

I folded my arms over my chest and looked away. “It feels wrong.”

“I am not asking _you_ to do it.”

We continued deeper into the tomb.

“I am going to open this chest now,” Dar’Zahyla announced in a mock-warning tone, pointing at the container in question. “For those of you with weak stomachs, this one suggests shielding her eyes.”

I glowered as she went to open it. Locked. “A sign, perhaps, my Thane.”

She grinned at me over her shoulder, slipping a lockpick from her sleeve. “Indeed. A sign that there is something of worth to be found, mm?” She went to work on the lock. I ground my teeth and turned to watch her back.

Three broken picks later and she had the chest open. “Do I want to know why you’re able to pick locks so well?” I asked her as she looked through the chest.

“Oh, no, not at all,” she assured me. I rolled my eyes and went to help her prop the chest open.

She withdrew a steel warhammer from the container, and I knew from the interest in her eyes that she’d be keeping it. At least it was still in pristine condition. I chalked that up to its being locked in a chest for however long. “My Thane,” I said, “do you even know how to use a warhammer?”

“This one does not. Now is as good a time as any to learn, though, yes?” She grinned at me and took a few steps away to take a few experimental swings. I hastily moved out of her range and she apologized. I said nothing, merely moving behind her to adjust her grip for her before letting her try again. “Ah, yes. That _is_ better.”

“You’ve never properly learned to use a weapon in your life, have you?” I asked flatly.

“No.” Dar’Zahyla seemed entirely unrepentant. That did explain her wild swings with the maces she’d been using. I wanted to rub my temples in frustration. This was the Dragonborn. The one blessed with the voice of a Dovah. Thane of Whiterun. And _this_ was what I had to put up with.

“Was there anything else from the chest you wanted?”

“This one had not finished looking.” She went back to rifling through the chest, and gave a small, interested noise a moment later.

“Find something?”

“Indeed!” She pulled out an amulet of Mara. My brows shot up.

“My Thane, you know what that is… right?” I cautioned.

Her eyes and hands were flickering with magic already as she tampered with it, evidently trying to see if it did anything. “No, but I am trying to figure that out.”

I had to fight the urge to giggle aloud. “That’s an amulet of Mara.”

Dar’Zahyla was barely listening, brow furrowed as she continued probing it with her minimal magic. “Ah, it has a name?” Her hands glowed white, and the amulet sparked in return. She gave a wordless noise of realization.

“It does.” It was getting harder not to chuckle outright. “Do you know what it does?”

She cast the white spell again, and again the amulet sparked. “Eases the casting of restoration spells, it seems,” Dar’Zahyla said with some degree of pleasure that she’d evidently figured it out. The corner of my mouth twitched as she put it on, testing it again with a few flashes of white magic.

“My Thane…”

She looked up at me. “Yes?”

I had two options now. I could either explain to her what that amulet’s purpose actually was and embarrass her beyond all reason, or… I could let her think herself right and have someone else explain and embarrass her later.

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from chuckling. “It suits you.”

Dar’Zahyla merely thanked me and beckoned me to follow her deeper. As soon as I was out of her eyesight I allowed myself a smirk.

This would be entertaining.


End file.
